Is it true tha all vitamins

[SheilaT]

are going to become prescription some time soon?

This was said in a group a couple of days ago, and the people who said this assured me that this would apply even to the ordinary multi-vitamins so many take.

While I personally don't take any at all, it strikes me as totally counter to profits to make all supplements prescription only, because I suspect that the vast majority of those who take them won't go to the effort and expense of getting a prescription.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. It's a made-up scare story

It would take a congressional bill to do it, and it would be huge news. Those people are just making things up.

[ThatPoetGuy]

2. No?

Where'd you hear that?

[laconicsax]

3. No.

Sounds like scaremongering.

[hedgehog]

4. I think there are rumblings about actually regulating supplements

to this degree:right now you can put a label on a bottle, put just about anything in it, and sell it. It's up to the FDA to prove your supplement is harmful. There is an effort to force manufacturers to submit their product for FDA approval before marketing them. The FDA isn't after vitamins or St. John's wort; its after companies selling sugar pills as vitamins, or wees as St. John's Wort. It turned out that some of those "natural male enhancement" pills actually contained uncontrolled doses of the active ingredient in Viagra. All kidding aside, that can be dangerous.

On a more down to earth level, if you buy glucosamine for joint pain, you have no way of knowing if there is actually glucosamine in the pills!

[demosincebirth]

6. They need to be regulated. You're right, there is no way, when you buy

vitamins, that you know what you're buying.

[BuddhaGirl]

13. not true

"On a more down to earth level, if you buy glucosamine for joint pain, you have no way of knowing if there is actually glucosamine in the pills!"

Not true - look for GMP certified supplements. They are tested and manufacturers must follow stringent guidelines.

[hedgehog]

14. Thank you - I didn't know that!

:hi:

[BuddhaGirl]

16. you're welcome!

:hi:

[PoliticAverse]

5. If someone tells you that...

ask for more specifics.
A congressional bill # or treaty name, etc...

[pscot]

7. Sounds like fear-mongering

Quackery abounds in the vitamin business, and in the doctor business too. http://www.quackwatch.org/

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. A law to that effect was recently passed in Britain

and there have been rumors that similar laws would be passed here, but so far no legislation is actively pending.
I believe I remember there were one or two introduced during the Bush regime, they died.

I have heard nothing of a current push, and I would have heard via some websites I visit a lot.

[LeftishBrit]

11. No, it wasn't. I live in Britain and there is no problem in buying supplements over the counter at

the local chemist.

The EU are proposing to make many herbal medicines prescription-only (prescription can be by a herbalist; doesn't need to be a doctor). And no, this does not mean that people can't grow herbs or drink herbal tea. What it means is greater regulation for potentially powerful medications, or those for serious diseases. Which I think is a good idea, whether applied to 'pharma' drugs or herbal medications: anything powerful enough to work is powerful enough to be dangerous, especially if produced without regulation or taken in the wrong quantities, and I don't trust the free market on such matters.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Really?

I remember reading that somewhere.....now I am wondering if the story was fake/false.

thank you for the correction.

[2Design]

9. instead we get the drugs push by reps of pharm for a lot more cost

and still they have problems - I trust supplements - I don't trust pharm

[SheilaT]

10. I should have pushed harder, but

didn't. I did point out that hardly anyone would get a prescription for basic one-a-day vitamins, but the people saying this just kind of shrugged, as if that didn't matter.

Not a biggie, and I was pretty certain it wasn't true. Thanks, all.

[semillama]

15. it's the same sort of reasoning that gun manufacturers encourage

Just substitute "supplements" for "guns" in any of the standard rhetoric.